Various Artists, ‘Our Lives Are Shaped by What We Love: Motown’s Mowest Story 1971-1973′ (Light In The Attic)

5 Flush with Motown success, Berry Gordy opened an L.A. branch of his Detroit institution to supposedly sign West Coast acts and, in industry parlance, be “closer to the business.” His subsequent roster of lesser-known soul and funk artists (along with off-message oddities like psych rockers Lodi) was no match for Marvin, Smokey, Stevie, and Michael. But Mowest did boast the Commodores and Thelma Houston, plus slick, languid funk acts Odyssey and Syreeta.